40 years in the wilderness

This Sunday we turned our attention to the beginning of mark chapter 3. The Gospel writer records an incident early in Jesus ministry in the synagogue on a sabbath.# The scriptures would be opened and read out loud for commentary and discussion. So too we do that on a Sunday morning in church. At its best this is an open ended participative engagement with the words and the one who stands behind them. On this occasion there was a man with a crippled hand and the leaders of the people are looking to see if Jesus will break the sabbath by healing him. Jesus asks them a question from the end of Deuteronomy, the sermon of Moses to the people before they enter the promised land. Is it better to save a life or to kill, to do good or evil on the sabbath. The answer od course is obvious and confounds his opponents. But here is where legalism has driven the religious interpreters of their scriptures. They are occupying a place of condemnation of the Deliverer, the Christ who...

I am somewhat obsessed with numbers when they occur in the Bible. So when I read in an encounter between Jesus and the synagogue ruler that there is a woman there bent over for 18 years I wonder. Apparently and I haven’t been able to confirm this Jesus never quotes form the books of Joshua or Judges. Unsurprising really as these two books record the record of Ancient Israel’s dealings or I should say destruction and genocide of the indigenous peoples of Canaan. As far as these two books are concerned, according to their writers they have God’s sanction for such bloodthirsty violence. Of course it is no wonder Jesus never quotes form them as he takes a very different view of who is my neighbour/enemy (A hated Samaritan par excellence) and teaches not a tooth for a tooth, kill or be killed but rather non-violent resistance of injustice and love of one’s enemies. Therefore in this particular encounter the allusion to Judges chapter 3, the only other...